A boycott of internet retailer Amazon for its tax avoidance has been called by the publishers of Ethical Consumer magazine.
Back in November Amazon admitted to MPs that it based its UK and European operations in Luxembourg for the lower tax rates and claimed not to know its UK turnover.
Other large firms now coming under public scrutiny for the tax they avoid and leave the rest of us to pay are Starbucks and Google.
Actor Martin Clunes has become the second man to be dropped from the £50 million ad campaign for Churchill Insurance for motoring offences.
The versatile and popular actor admitted to Churchill Insurance that he had reached 12 points on his driving licence for speeding offences and had been banned from driving by magistrates under totting up rules.
Clunes follows comedian Vic Reeves, who was the voice of the Churchill nodding dog until he was caught driving whilst three and a half times over the legal alcohol limit in 2005.
Have our train operating companies, and our Department of Transport got their long term marketing disastrously wrong?
We ask this bearing in mind the constant fare increases designed to pay for improvements to the inter city services, such as modestly reduced journey times, for which it is thought the well-heeled business community will be happy to pay. (time is money after all) Continue reading
Those looking for a useful business gift that lasts all year might consider copies of the Hardens independent restaurant guides.
These review more than 3,000 establishments and can be supplied leather-bound and embossed with initials. The UK guide costs £15.99 but is available to readers of Marketing Matters for £10.99. The London guide costs £12.99 with a special reader price of £8.99. Prices include post and packing free in the UK.
Tel: 020 7839 4763 www.hardens.com/st
One luxurious new product for the ones who have everything, or who aspire to, is the sugar cane swizzle stick, crystallised South African cane sugar, white or amber, moulded around the end of a stick and giving two to three spoonfuls of the sweet stuff when stirred into a hot drink.
Currently the sticks are being offered to top end UK hotels and some retail outlets but could there be, given the decidedly up-market image and novelty value, a promotional use somewhere?
Details: www.sugarcrystalco.co.uk
Fourteen disabled people were killed, and eight more badly burnt in a fire and explosion around 2.00pm on November 26 that devastated a charity workshop in the Black Forest area of South West Germany.
The workshop was run by the Catholic charity Caritas and the tragedy was thought to have been caused by a faulty gas heater. More than 100 people were working in the workshop making Christmas toys and other items.
An investigation is currently being carried out.
Billions of pounds in aid money meant to help the people of Japan rebuild their lives after its tsunami and nuclear disasters have been wasted by Japan’s politicians on projects such as whaling, which Japan does under the guise of “research”
Other priorities the Japanese government has set for expenditure of the aid money include vital renovation of government offices in Tokyo.
Question for givers is whether governments of other disaster-hit countries would be more deserving.
Donations to charities have slumped by 20% because of the recession.
This is one of the findings of the annual survey by the Charities Aid Foundation and the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, which found that donations to charities fell by by £2.3 billion last year to £9.3 billion, figures adjusted for inflation. The proportion of people giving to charity also fell – from 58% to 55% – and the average gift fell from £11 per month to £10 per month.
Meanwhile there have been calls for those not working actively for charity to not be considered for knighthoods, an aspect that would apply to more than 25% of the names on the last honours list. This would not of course have applied to Sir Jimmy Savile, whose unsuitability for the knighthood he was given was due to other factors.
As nearly 500 victims of abuse by disgraced BBC celebrity Sir Jimmy Savile have come forward a former BBC governor, Sir Roger Jones has told the Exposure Update documentary programme why he stopped appearances by Savile on the Children in Need TV charity appeal in 1999.
Jones, who was BBC governor from 1997 – 2003 claimed: “The body language of the staff when Jimmy Savile was mentioned was such that I could detect discomfort and I came to the view that they didn’t really want him involved, and I didn’t want him involved either”
Since the two Exposure programmes were aired the NSPCC has had a significant rise in calls on its helpline on aspects of sexual abuse. (0808 800 5000)
One friendly hotel we’ve found in the pretty town of Midhurst, West Sussex, in the centre of the South Downs National Park, is the Angel Hotel and Bentley’s Grill, a traditional old coaching inn, with rooms dating from the 17th century
This offers charities free use of its £150 per day meeting room for up to 70, formerly the magistrates courtroom till 1880 and still bearing the inscription: “I will not change until I die”, although whether this applied to the magistrates, or the criminals they tried here, is unknown. Charities are also offered discounts on food and beverage consumed. One former consumer here was H.G.Wells, who lodged a few doors away and used the hotel as a setting in some of his books. Continue reading